I see it spelled both “omelet” (male) or “omelette” (female), but which one is correct?
statistically i’d say it’s probably about a 50/50 mix
In case you’re wondering, “omelette” is feminine in French, “une omelette”.
Also in Spanish (la tortilla)
That IS a significant part of what I was wondering, yes.
It’s neutral in German. Das Omelett.
I am loving this as a datum.
Did a quick search and it looks like both spellings are valid with omelet being more common in American English and omelette more common in British English. Dunno if English is your native language, but if it isn’t it doesn’t really have gendered nouns like some other languages (French, German, and Spanish for example). Referring to something like a food as male or female sounds odd in English. If you are a native speaker of English, sorry!
Maybe I’m the odd one out but ime here in the States “omelette” is way more common. I would have assumed that the other is a typo.
Same, but I wanted to double check before I stated my anecdotal evidence as fact. I imagine it’s also regional in America since there’s some dialectal differences as well.
American here, I’ve always known them spelled as “omelettes.” I checked the websites of our most popular breakfast chains (Denny’s and IHOP) and they spell them “omelette,” as well.
Specifically searching online for places that spell it “omelet,” we’ve got a smaller casual chain Bob Evans, a few online recipes from some sites like Food Network and All Recipes, but most still overwhelmingly choose the “omelette” spelling.
I’d venture to guess that it’s still the American standard way to spell it “omelette,” but with a widely recognized alternative spelling of “omelet” sometimes seen.
Omelet and Omelette both have the same French root and were adopted into the English language back in the 1600s or so.
After this period, the English were quite enamoured with the French for a little while there and so the language then borrowed a lot of French words (see: enamoured), and colourised a bunch of others with French spelling (see: colour/color).
The US , on the other hand, had a bit of a beef going on with the English during that time, so “US English” resisted the French influence of their colonial overlords and remained with omelet.
After this period, the English were quite enamoured with the French for a little while there and so the language then borrowed a lot of French words (see: enamoured), and colourised a bunch of others with French spelling (see: colour/color).
I’m not an expert on the history of English, but this doesn’t seem linguistically or historically accurate. More than half of modern English words are derived from Latin or French, even if the absolute most common words tend to have Germanic roots. Old English before the Norman conquest of 1066 is unrecognizable to native speakers of Modern English (except through academic study), and even Middle English (post-Norman conquest through about the popularization of the printing press in the 15th century) is really hard for native English speakers to parse. Middle English eliminated a lot of grammatical rules or Old English, to better match French grammar, because the ruling class in those days still primarily spoke French.
The French influence on the English language began in 1066 and never let up. By the time American English split from English English, they were already a heavily French-influenced language, before Englishman Samuel Johnson began standardizing spellings, and the American Noah Webster moving to simplify spellings, primarily by choosing the simplest version already in common use. Webster’s work was popularized mainly in the U.S., so that England and the U.S. standardized spellings differently, and some portion of words remain spelled slightly differently.
So no, I don’t think the English started incorporating French words or other linguistic influence only in the 1600s.
I’m a native English speaker but I also speak Spanish and studied Latin, so I’m pretty used to thinking of words as gendered. Maybe I should have asked just Francophones, but I didn’t want to limit the question in that way.
Perhaps the answer is just that American half-moon omelets are masculine and French trifold omelettes are feminine. The world is a strange place like that sometimes.
I have never seen “omelet” as a Canadian. We use the British spelling on this one (as we often do).
We use the Canadian spelling, which is close but not the same as the British one.
Depends on it if has sausage on it or in it
What about those with both? :)
Spell it however your heart tells you to
In Portuguese, “omelete” is masculine-gendered noun ("fiz um omelete”, “I made an omelette” with the “um” being the undefined masculine article / “fez o omelete?”, “did you make the omelette” with the “o” being the defined masculine article). Similarly, “ovo” (egg) is masculine-gendered noun (“um ovo” / “o ovo”). On the other hand, “crepioca” (which is quite similar to an omelette but made with “tapioca” flour) is feminine-gendered (“uma crepioca” / “a crepioca”). “Tapioca” is also a feminine-gendered noun.
Omelette du fromage.
La tortilla. Female.
And here I always thought it was spelt umlaut
it’s only an umlaut if it’s from the Germany region of France, otherwise it’s just sparkling diaeresis
the Germany region of France
Haven’t these countries fought enough times over Alsace-Lorraine?
Germany region of France
*deeply offended German noises* Ä
aren’t those just the default German noises?
… *decidedly unamused German noises* :ß
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Interesting! I’ve only ever had explosive diaeresis, never sparkling! TIL!
Ironically, the point of a diaeresis is to prevent things running together!
Oui
ouimelet(te)
I can’t tell if this is a serious question, or a set up for a joke.
Two eggs went down the wrong alley in Toulouse and were badly beaten.
Sorry, that joke was cheesey. I suppose omelet jokes often are.
But hey, two win some, Toulouse some.
Some countries use male and female versions of some of their words.
s/countries/languages/
Omoletto
Domo arigato mr. Omoletto.
my favorite pokémon
